By Penni Schaefer
LINESVILLE — Pete Houghton said he knew switching from bread to pellets would be an issue, but even he wasn’t prepared for the public outcry.
More than 350 people filled the seats of the Linesville High School gymnasium Monday for a forum hosted by Crawford County state lawmakers to get to the bottom of a frenzy that erupted recently after the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks announced a new “no-bread” fish-feeding policy at Pymatuning Spillway.
The forum was hosted by 17th District state Rep. Michele Brooks, Fifth District state Rep. John Evans, Sixth District state Rep. Brad Roae and state Sen. Bob Robbins, all Republicans. All said they recently found out about the change in park policy by reading it in area newspapers.
Evans pointed out that the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission do not have legislative oversight and have the ability to make their own policies.
According to multiple panelists that important issues other than the local economy were the determining factor in the change.
Dan Hill, a volunteer game commissioner at the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said the decision to move away from bread to fish pellets was based on a variety of environmental elements. Bread bags and ties produce litter; feeding fish breads, rolls and homemade goods increases the risk of transmitting human-to-animal disease; and the “fish-feeding activity” has caused the waterfowl population to increase dramatically, Hill said.
Houghton, who is the park manager, told the audience that the decision to halt the hurling of bread came after a “record” year of complaints about “goose issues” in 2007 — “97 written and about 10 times that number were verbal.”
Wait a minute — did you say “goose” problems? At what point did feeding the fish bread lead to waterfowl concerns?
After three hours, the answer to that question still did not seem clear to those who attended the event.
According to Bob Barth, a spokesperson from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, there were multiple recreational-use areas at Pymatuning State Park that were overrun with Canada geese.
“Visitors complained and said they wouldn’t come back until we had the goose problem solved,” Barth said.
Specifically the marina, the campgrounds and other day-use areas were littered with goose droppings.
According to estimates, the spillway area, which recently underwent a $3.8 million renovation project, draws between 300,000 and 500,000 visitors each year. The spillway has been a popular site since the reservoir was constructed in the late 1930s.
And what do the majority of the visitors come to see?
According to Juanita Hampton, executive director of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau, they come to see the place where the ducks walk on the backs of fish!
Many visitors said they were still very confused.
Speaking directly to Hill, Linesville area resident Jim Lasko asked him to explain how artificially feeding the fish is harmful.
“I haven’t seen any dead fish floating!” Lasko said.
After pointing out that the Pymatuning Lake area was surrounded by waterfowl propagation areas — designed specifically to draw and enhance duck and geese populations — Lasko asked Houghton, Barth and Hill why they weren’t trying to deal directly with the waterfowl problem.
“I didn’t know I was coming to a duck management meeting!” he said. And then told them that their waterfowl programs “were working too well.”
Linesville resident Barb Hogan told the panelists that the waterfowl propagation areas that surround the park have been too successful, and said the problem has risen from changing the gaming laws that have continuously lowered the daily bag limits from eight to three and even — at one point — down to zero. Now the daily waterfowl limit is one.
The propagation effort maintains a permanent flock of thousands of geese.
Rep. Brooks said she received 600 e-mails in the last week alone, giving testament that the park’s decision “needs to be revisited.”
Sen. Robbins said it “is not a decision that can stand — it’s that simple.”
Houghton said that the current policy is not due to take effect until Jan. 1. Due to the overwhelming response and “public outcry” that the issue has caused, he will discuss it with the bureau director “and go from here.” He did not predict if or when a change to the policy would be made.
Penni Schaefer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at pschaefer@meadvilletribune.com.
